rise
by thir13enth
Summary: He lifts her up, like the rising sun. "Will you be at my side?" "Always." Zutara, for the week.


**You know, I actually can't believe I'm going through with this whole Zutara Week thing—I realize how much time writing takes, well not even that—how much writing occupies your thinking capacity! Geez, if only fanfiction could actually be attempted to be published!**

**Anyway, laments of a writer aside, I bring you Zutara Week theme 3: transcend. Unlike the other one-shots, this is more of a collection of chronological drabbles.**

* * *

In the midst of a dry argument, a fog of silence fell over them.

And he broke the quiet first.

"You know," he said, slowly and hesitantly, but as though the words had been something that were kept over his heart for more than a while. "Maybe we were never meant to be."

The tears in her eyes froze and for the longest time, she didn't know what to say.

"I thought we were always destined to be together—from the moment that you broke me out of that iceberg there was never anything else that I was so sure of. I thought we were soul mates and I thought there was nothing more than I ever wanted than to be with you. And I'm really happy with you…but I don't know if _this_…" and his eyes traversed their surroundings as though to refer to their situation. "I don't know if this is what I thought about us being together."

She had always loved the cold of the South Pole, finding it refreshing and awakening, and never understood why her other friends disliked it so much. But after the last few of his words slipped from his lips, a chill crept up into the sleeve of her clothing and for the first time, she experienced how the cold could take the breath right out of her, and leave her empty.

Or maybe, it was just _him_ that was leaving her with nothing.

Her eyebrows furrowed suddenly, the last of her tears trailing down her cheeks and she glared up at him, seeing his genuinely concerned face—a face that she had come to know as her other half.

But that didn't matter; she exploded like the volcano that had killed his predecessor.

"So now what, you're just going to leave me here? Go off to the Western Air Temple and see if you can recreate the ruins of your people?" she shouted, knowing that it would hurt him.

"No, Katara, please—"

"I should have known you better—you would never be happy just settling down and having a family. I should realized it from the start—"

"Katara, I didn't mean it like—"

"Airbenders!" she interrupted, pent up beliefs rising to the surface of her skin in furious blush. "You must all be the same—all you care about is your own freedom, your ability to travel. The monks taught you to have no worldly attachments and you kept their philosophy up even through marriage!"

Aang put out his hands and attempted to hug her, trying to soothe her down, but she ripped from his grasp and continued her scathing.

"Marriage!" she shouted. "That's a _promise_! It's a _sacrifice_! But so far I haven't seen you give up anything for me, for _us_!"

He didn't say anything, letting her throw everything at him.

Katara, turned around, crossing her arms, looking toward the rising sun. "You're still chasing your childish dreams," she muttered, but loud enough for him to hear. "You miss your people and you want to reverse everything that a hundred years has done for it—but I still can't believe that you haven't realized it's not possible."

Not defending himself, he shuffled one foot in the snow, crunching it under his shoe.

"You're the only airbender left," she continued, almost sympathetically. "There isn't any need to go and try to rebuild your own civilization."

"…I still think that there's a legacy to protect in the temples, Katara. And…that's why I think I should go and try to keep it alive. I still feel this huge responsibility to my people, and I've realized that…I can't balance the two lives that I'm trying to live."

"So you are going to leave me," she concluded for him. "Here, on my own, taking care of Kya—"

"Well, I'm not going to just throw you—"

"That's why, isn't it?" she suddenly realized. "It's because Kya couldn't take after you—it's because Kya is a waterbender! You wanted a son, and on top of that, you wanted him to be an airbender, didn't you?"

Aang grimaced, "I can't say that I didn't hope—"

"And I couldn't give that to you! It's all my fault, isn't it? I couldn't give you an airbending son so you suddenly realize that I'm not the one?"

"Katara, it's not like that. It's not your fault that Kya—"

"Leave," she said, heading back towards their home. "I don't want to see you again. None of this was supposed to happen. I thought everything would be alright after I married, once everything had settled. But if it's not going to satisfy you—this whole living on the ground and staying put so that our child could grow up without so much chaos—then leave. I'll make sure that Kya gets the sufficient childhood and fostering that she needs."

She had only taken a few steps away when he replied softly. "You know, Katara. You were just a child when you were dragged into my whole mess…and I think you came out great."

The waterbender took a deep breath. Her countenance smoothed out. "She's just a one year old, Aang. Just leave." Then she added, "I don't want to take you away from your duties."

"I'm sorry, Katara."

Times like these, she didn't want ears.

"I'm sorry I was never the man you wanted me to be."

He left in a flurry of snow; she curled into a ball in their cold bed.

It was so cold.

So cold.

She secured herself under the many heavy blankets.

But she was cold from the inside, and nothing that she did would stop her from shivering.

She didn't want to feel this way anymore, but there was really nowhere to turn.

Days past and her bones were still frozen, her skin stretched over her chilled veins, a numbing creeping up through her toes.

This was no place for her, she realized, and one evening when she lit a candle to illuminate her home, shadows caressing the many pictures and memories of a warmer past, she realized that she didn't want to be there any longer.

Under the same stars of that night, she left, her child bunched up in her arms, not even bothering to put the fire out…

"…Katara?"

She looked up at the sound of her name, realizing it was morning, the sun thawing her skin.

The light was different here than in the South Pole—the morning more yellow, more crisp. The wind was gentle and humid, rustling through the large tropical leaves of the trees that soared past the red roofs of thinner-walled buildings.

It was no wonder that everything here grew and blossomed.

The first thing she thought of was of her daughter, and she gasped at the lack of the girl in her arms.

"It's okay—I have the nurses taking care of her," she was informed, a hand reaching down in an offer to help her stand up.

Remnants of icy tears, she rubbed off her face with her still dampened cloak, her eyes dry and feeling red.

Only then she took his hand, shuddered at the heat from the contact and raised her face towards him, her body following the rest of her up, supported in his strong pull.

"Are you okay?" he asked, once she was on her feet.

She nodded, feeling warmth for the first time in what seemed like ages, and unable to form words, since his amber gaze suddenly seemed to shatter her icy prison, where she had become so numb.

**divider**

Walking along the muddy pavement, she paced beyond the verandas of the palace, letting the dirty water taint the fringes of the thin scarlet clothing that wasn't native to her skin or social class. Her sandals lapped up the puddles and her feet itched at the dirt between her toes but at the moment she didn't really care.

Her thick dark hair began to straighten under the weight of the rain, her attire sticking to her caramel skin.

And she let the cool rain pour down on her, trickling down her cheeks to mix with salty tears she was more than happy to disguise.

It might have been coincidental that her element cried for her mother as well, on the day that she disappeared from Katara's sight forever.

She picked a spot on the stone fountain to sit down, looking up at the depressed sky and picking out the clouds that might have formed the shape of her late mother's semblance.

Nothing in even the heavens could compare to her mother's beauty, though.

Some rain had pooled within her helpless palms and her wretched emotions ripped waves in the water, bending without much thought. Each time she tried to hold in a sob, the rain hiccupped around her, freezing and melting under unrepressed control of her sentiments. She tossed the water back and forth to her will, angrily, as though shaking out the magic would get rid of her ability, and thus bring her mother back.

A rustle behind her, and she threw down the captured water, pretending that she was doing nothing but sitting in the rain.

If it had been anyone else, she would have thrown a twig at them to ward them away like a crow.

But he knew how heavy the guilt was for a child whose mother sacrificed everything to protect.

So she didn't mind that he sat by her side, allowing her tears to soak his robes.

Never in a thousand years would her mother have ever thought that she would take comfort in the arms of the lord of the nation that declared war on all the other elements. Never in a million years would her mother have ever thought that she would find relief in the eyes of a man whose ancestors had murdered her mother in vain of finding her, the last waterbender of the South.

"Today's the day, isn't it?" he asked her, and she was glad to know that he understood the depths of her silent heart.

"She did it to save me," her voice ached at the ball in her throat.

He looked up at the sky, unblinking even as the rain tumbled down from above. "I know," he said, having heard her very words in his own mind whenever he fell into nightmares that began with: Where is she?

"I'm sorry," he said, and he carried the burden of his past generations for her.

**divider**

The girl squealed every time she was tossed high up in the air, only to be caught again in the able arms of a Firelord.

A smile graced Katara's face, and she suddenly remarked, "You know, it's going to be her second birthday in a few days."

"Really," he replied, and paused in his tossing for a moment. "Well, then there should be a big celebration!" He turned back to the girl and asked her, "What sort of things does you like, huh, Kya?"

The almost-two-year-old reached up for the shiny gold on top of his head, pulling the needle out of his crown, which fell with a clang.

"Kya!" her mother scolded, immediately getting up and pulling her out of his arms so that he could recover his hair. "How disrespectful!"

"She's barely two, Katara; it's not a big deal," he explained, with a dismissive wave of his hand forgiving everything, and bending down to reach for his headpiece. She watched him artfully sculpt his raven locks back into place, before he turned back to the girl and poked her nose. "You'll grow up quicker than you know it," he cooed.

"Papa!" the girl blurted suddenly, and though he hid it, the smile on his lips vanished.

"How is everything going, by the way?" and a rigidness settled in his voice, apart from the playful banter he had had before with Kya.

"What do you mean?" she asked, but she already knew what he was talking about. Kya was squirming in her arms, and Katara took the opportunity to let her daughter wander off in the great halls of the palace that they'd call home since she had left the South Pole.

He chose his words carefully. "Do you have plans ahead of you?"

She wasn't prepared for this question—actually she should have been, instead of eating, drinking, and wandering around the Fire Nation as though she was meant to be there all along. "I haven't really thought about it, no," she replied.

The firelord didn't seem to mind. "Just do what's comfortable for you. You're an honored guest here. I just want you to figure everything out—whatever's best for you guys before you move on." He looked down at his feet and then turned to return to his office.

"Thank you, Zuko," she said quickly. "For everything."

Here, he stopped, shrugging. "Have to do what friends do," he explained briefly.

She had to get something off her chest, but she wasn't sure what her body ached to tell him, so she stalled instead. "But you've provided so much more."

His eyebrows furrowed quizzedly. "If you're asking if I have a motive for doing all this, I don't. I have the ability to help my friends, so I'll use it. You need my help, so I'll give it," he continued, following logically as if there was no other solution.

Folding her hands into each other, she sighed. "I sorta just landed on your shores and kind of just expected you to help me—that wasn't really well-intended of me."

"Not every marriage turns out for the best," the firebender replied, his own golden eyes tracing some memories of his own. "It's not completely your fault." And then he added, "And don't think that you're bothering me or something—this really isn't that much of a favor, no matter what you believe. Just stay here for now until you figure out a place to go."

Realizing that this is what she had been bothered with, she blurted, "Well to be honest, I don't really want to go."

She wasn't sure what to read from his eyes, but he responded curtly, "I can't say that I'd trade the palace for a cottage either."

But that wasn't it.

Not after she realized that her heart rose when he was near.

"No," she answered, stepping forward, a hand reaching out for him. "I mean—"

And he swiveled around, something she didn't expect, and she took her hand back.

"Is there something else?"

She didn't contain it.

Her hands reached up for him and she pressed her lips against his.

"I don't want to go," she repeated, her words kissing his lips. She had watched him from the sidelines for far too long, seeing his lonely eyes glaze whenever his advisors asked him about plans for his successor. She knew that the thought of her had lingered in the back of his mind when he heard rumors whispered about his relation with a strange waterbender that he had taken up to care for. She remembered wanting to make these rumors reality.

His liquid honey eyes flickered and he said, softer than outing a flame, "Marry me, Katara."

**divider**

"Ah," he cursed, flicking his hand back. "You pack a punch for a little girl, don't you?"

"Go easy on him, Kya," Katara's voice mockingly sang from the other end of the garden.

The firelord looked back at her with a smirk before turning back to the three-year old. "You're going to be an awesome waterbender, just like your mom," he said, looking down at her with proud eyes.

"What about fire? Like you, Dad?"

"Nah, you only have one element," he replied. "And I'm pretty sure you're not the Avatar."

"Avatar?"

One eyebrow lifted. "You'd think you know who the Avatar is, huh?" he told his adopted daughter, looking back towards Katara. He put the thought aside and explained, "The Avatar is the master of all four elements: fire, air, water, and earth."

Kya pouted and rambunctiously pronounced, "I will be a master of water!" And some water from the fountain slapped him across the shoulder.

"Oy!" he said, wiping the water off his face, a genuine smile evolving over his lips. He tackled Kya, who laughed loudly at the tickling, and carried her over to where her mother was seated.

"Beat by a three-year-old waterbender?" the firelady asked jokingly.

"Hey, she's pretty good for her age," Zuko admitted. "You'll have to train her."

"Later perhaps," his wife replied.

She stretched her back slowly.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"Doing better," she replied.

"Idiot, I'm not asking you," he retorted, and then turned his attention on the bulge of her stomach. "I'm asking this one."

"Ugh," she scoffed, pushing him gently before taking his hand to help herself up.

**divider**

She closed her eyes again, attempting once more to fall asleep.

But just like the last time, her eyes opened and she turned to face the empty side of the bed, which hadn't been warm under his body heat for many years.

Her finger slowly twisted one of her white locks in contemplation, a habit that she still carried from the time her hair was young.

"You should see them now," she said. "Our grandchildren. They've gotten so big since you last saw them."

And she told him about what he hadn't witnessed, even though she knew that somewhere in the skies he was watching down on all of them.

"And Iroh was promoted general," she continued. "He's the spitting image of you in your younger days, you know." She told her love more tales of their progeny, splitting the silence with her storyweaving tongue, on and on into the night, so much that she could almost see him smiling and nodding back to her from the other side of the bed.

When she finally fell asleep, she saw the sunrise trickling in through the window and his figure standing before him.

And she knew it was a dream, but there was never any other more vivid.

"Here, come with me, love. Be at my side?" he asked gently, a hand outstretched towards her.

She took his hand.

"Always," she said, as he led up her into the heavens.

* * *

**I feel like Zutara always involves me trying to get rid of Aang in as many unique ways as possible, lol, which I don't mind doing for Zutara. But it makes me sorta sad because I actually like the kid, but ya gotta do what you gotta do for a backstory, huh?**

**So basically, this whole story actually is related to the theme transcend because in every flashback, Zuko's lifting her up, whether that be physical, through class, or even through passing. :) This story, in my opinion, was meh, but let's see what you guys think!**

**Review please? And shameless plug: check out **_**Pocket Deep**_**! (I'm just about to update it!)**

**thir13enth**


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